Stickmangumby

Thanks for the help guys Is there any danger of bending them too far, as long as it isn't ridiculous (ie 10" for 20" fretboard)?

I'm making a fret bender, and having not done a lot of refretting I'm wondering how much you want to overbend the frets. I have StewMac radius gauges, and I'm comparing the tang of the bent fret to the radius on the gauges... how many mm from the centre of the gauge should I be aiming for? Am I getting too technical? I'll post pics up tomorrow if need be. Thanks

The simplest way is probably the last way that ryanb suggested. I had the same problem and used a miniature hacksaw to cut a slot in the head of the screw, worked like a charm. Just be careful of your headstock finish if you're getting aggressive with a hacksaw.

Heh, I'm very disgruntled with my dremel at the moment, it's doing bad all round. Also, I don't have a vice :O Is clamping it to an MDF bench top an option?

Thanks guys

I haven't done any metalwork before, and I'm trying to make a fret bevel tool using Brian's tutorial on the main site. I'm stuck at the first step though... I can't even cut the handle and untoothed part of the file off! I've tried using a dremel, a jigsaw, and a miniature hacksaw, all of which did not even make a dent in it. Anyone got any tips? Thanks

If you've got an electric guitar, take it apart and put it back together, get used to how it works, practise setting it up, find out what makes it work! This will give you something practical and relevant to do amongst all the reading you'll need to do.

If you change the scale of the neck AND shift the bridge, it will work.

Tone shmone. I doubt you can recognise any difference based on the removal of enough wood to install a single-coil rather than a humbucker... the guitar will sound pretty different due to the new pickups, but you won't be able to tell which part of that is being affected by the removal of wood.

Dan Erlewine suggests:

"If the part's free of the guitar, apply a little heat with a propane torch or soldering iron, which causes parts to expand and contract and often breaks the rusted bond."

Don't overheat it though, and make sure you've cleaned off all of your flammable solvents first!!!

I can't help you out, but people are going to want to know where you're located.

You may find it is a lot easier to make a new pickguard so that you can cover the hole where the output jack was, rather than filling the output jack route with wood.

I don't think you'll get it sounding the same as it used to... it's half a different guitar.

You can get piezo bridges for electrics that sound more acoustic, and mix the signal with the electro-magnetic pickups.

Tuning down, with heavy gauge strings, and playing aggressively is a recipe for fret buzz. The only solution is higher action, and maybe putting a little more relief into your neck. If that is uncomfortable then you will need to change your technique or string gauge, or come to terms with a little buzzing.

Ok cool, thanks guys, that's reassured me

Let's rock... Let's rock... TODAY!

I don't get it either. I've bought stuff on eBay from America before, books and a junkload of guitar strings and stuff and I've never had any issues getting it in without paying customs fees. It's just I've read of some incidents both on this forum and others of people having to pay $50 processing fees as well as 5% minimum customs duty fees as well as %10 GST, and I'm looking to minimise such costs. Even Stew Mac advises that some of their customers have reported having to pay an additional 50% in customs duties when shipping with DHL!! Maybe I'll just give it a go and see what happens I want this stuff bad!

Ok, I'm about to put in an order with Stew Mac, and I'm trying to figure out what the best way to get it here will be. I've browsed these forums and the wider internet, and found conflicting information. The order comes in at around $140AU. I can either get Postal Air Shipping (arrives in 2-4 weeks) for ~$30 or DHL Express Air shipping (arrives in 3-7 days) for ~$40. Now generally I'd much rather pay the extra $10 and get it sooner rather than later, but I'm having issues figuring out which is better in terms of customs duty and taxes. Having had a look at the Australian customs site, I think that it should cost me very little if not nothing, because the value of the goods is less than $1000... now this seemed to be conflicting with a lot of things I'd read on this forum and others about getting stuff imported. Here is the Australian customs site link that I'm referring to. I'm not sure whether I'm reading it wrongly or I'm missing some other information, but that doesn't seem right. Also, is that only if I get Postal Air Shipping as opposed to DHL? Can anyone offer some insight or anecdotal evidence to help me out?

Thanks

I use icecube trays or fishing tackle storers (those plastic boxes with lots of little plastic drawers in them) to store the parts so tat you know what goes where and what screws into what and so on.

Just take some photos if you aren't confident you will know where things go back, label the hardware you remove in a way you will know where it goes.

Also, use the right tools to take it apart... making do with the wrong size screw driver and ending up with stripped screws will make you cry.

I don't think they would fix the problem by themself... they would definitely improve it, but strings binding at the nut would still be a problem. Maybe if you got a roller nut or something as well?

Thanks guys, that makes sense now

How about the top of a string nut being made to a rounded shape with a flat file ?

Or the very radiused back of a neck being sanded with a flat sanding block.

I can see how that would work if the frets were filed across the fretboard, but the frets are filed flat along the length of the fretboard. Both of those examples involve rounding over the surface with a flat object, which you couldn't do if you rotated the file or sanding block 90 degrees (haha well you could, but I reckon you would butcher whatever you were doing it to).

On topic: Some people do use radiused blocks to level frets, but others don't see the neccesity in that as you can match the radius of the fretboard while using a flat file if you've got a good eye for it. It's just like you can use a file with a guide block to chamfer the edges of the frets, or you can do it with just the file. Either method can potentially yield very good or very bad results depending on whos hand their in.

Does that mean that the correct filing method involves making several parallel passes down the fretboard, each pass shifted a couple of centimetres across the face of the board?

Another question... how does the taper of a fretboard (thicker at the body than the nut) affect how you level the frets with non-radiused objects?

I don't understand this fundemental thing about dressing frets... how can people suggest using flat files or oilstones (as opposed to radiused sanding blocks) when dressing frets if the fingerboard is radiused? Surely, with a radiused fret board, the frets are installed with a radius, and using a flat object to level them will damage (ie flatten the tops of the frets) or remove (ie flatten the whole fret, so that the edges are thinner than the middle) the radius required for the guitar to play properly.

Also, how does the frets being radiused work in relation to the fret slots being cut to a linear depth?

THanks

But surely what it does pick up will be of a higher output? I mean, if the magnetic field were narrower (ie the string vibrations moved past the boundaries of the magnetic field) then some frequencies would be cut off, but the strings vibrating closer to the magnets would mean more current was induced into the electro-magnet, and so the signal leaving the guitar is greater? Have you got a linky to the said flamed post or other info about this? Thanks

The idea of the springs is so that you can adjust the height of the pickups to where you want them. The higher they are, the more output they will give, but the more likely you are to hit them with your pick or with the strings when playing.

Get into the link marksound gave for guitar setup tutorials.

Fretboard removal tutorial from the Project guitar tutorial section.

Fretboard attachment tutorial from the Project guitar tutorial section.

You are by far the best judge as to whether or not you're going to be able to do that. I've never done it before, but I'd personally take Kevan's advice and practise on a few junk necks first.